Correctional officers 'It's our turn!'

We as a union of the guards at the Somerset County Jail have been reading and watching the news articles, comments, and letters to the editors about the allegations of abuse of prisoners by prisoners.

We also have heard comments and "snide" remarks made to us or about us by the public. We have been called "corrupt" and "not caring." We, as usual, are looked upon as "lesser people than those we are watching." We feel we are looked down upon and forgotten by our community, the leaders of our community, and our local justice system. We believe this, in part is due to general ignorance of daily operations in a county jail and political motivations.

We are appalled and downright resentful of the accusations we have been hearing. We risk our lives everyday so the public can be safe. Only correctional officers understand what the job is all about. A walk in our shoes for a while would be an eye opening experience for anyone!

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As C.O.s in a county jail, we must deal with all types of people who commit all kinds of crimes. When we receive a new inmate we usually do not have any idea what kind of person we have to deal with. Police officers can tell us of their experiences with the individual(s) while in their custody, which is usually only an hour, more or less, depending on the incident.

Once in our custody we observe these people during the processing procedure and it is determined where the individual will be housed based on their charges, demeanor and medical needs. If we have room in each section of the jail, this can be done fairly easily. If the jail is bulging at the seams, this is a nearly impossible task. Inmates who are committed to our county jail come with medical problems (including serious contagious diseases), drug and/or alcohol withdrawals, mental conditions, and oftentimes a serious criminal record.

Many inmates are sometimes combative, disrespectful, suicidal, homicidal, intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. We corrections officers must care for and handle these people 24/7 in the lockup. We must do so as professionally and safely as possible.

Tell us how you as an individual working, as a corrections officer would handle a person brought in off the turnpike for assaulting a police officer? Process him and lock 'em up you say? Now let's factor in the equation the possibility this person is 6-feet 5-inches and 300 pounds. A violent man and suffering from a bipolar condition, has hepatitis C, HIV (AIDS), tuberculosis, and takes insulin shots three times a day to treat his diabetic condition. You also do not have anything with which to protect yourself when around this individual other than the training you received at the academy many years ago, common sense, and the thought of never seeing your family again.

Oh, we forgot to mention you do have a walkie-talkie to call for help.

How about the inmate who says he/she is suicidal? Standard procedure is to take everything away from them, isolate them, and place a watch on them. If an inmate does commit suicide, imagine being the officer who finds him/her and what they must go through trying to revive the inmate. Like the family member, we too suffer for the loss of their relative. We must deal with the memories of discovering and trying to revive the inmate. We must live with those memories forever. We pray to God that this does not happen and pray for the inmates when they are troubled. Unlike the inmates, we receive no counseling and must endure our emotional distress from our experiences at our job.

Now we would like to clear up a few misconceptions.

Public misconception No. 1: "A jail is a jail." Wrong! There are the local county jail and two state prisons in our county. Inmates in our county's state prisons have been classified and selected by the state to be placed at SCI-Somerset or SCI Laurel Highlands. They have already been through the courts and sentenced. The county inmate comes from everywhere. If a state trooper arrests a drug dealer on the turnpike, we get them. If a murder happens in our county, we get the person accused of it. If a crime occurs in one of our county's state prisons, we get the inmate because the crime happened in our county and must be processed through our local courts. If an inmate is paroled from one of our state prisons and has a detainer from another state, we get the inmate who has to waive extradition rights through our courts and then sits in our county's jail for weeks awaiting the transporting officers from the detaining state to arrive. Unfortunately, when someone is brought to the jail for non-payment of traffic fines or a DUI, they will most likely have contact with these more dangerous people. Why?